Pueblos, comunidades y municipios frente a los proyectos modernizadores en America Latina, siglo XIX (review)

This well put together volume addresses the influence of subaltern politics in state building during the transition from colonial to republican rule in Latin America, stressing the complex relationship between ethnicity and new nationalist sensibilities. The contributors share a common interest in the politics of memory and strategies for recovering underrepresented voices in this critical period.

Andrés Guerrero's provocative but problematic essay dissects the tension between constitutional ideals and existing practices in his analysis of two revealing events: the failed attempt to replace Indian tribute with a universal "contribution" applied to all Ecuadorians in 1843 and the adoption of legal equality in the constitution of 1857. He posits an essential question: Does domination change when the constitutional order promotes universal rights? Guerrero's answer is negative. Ecuador's landowners recreated a system of symbolic domination that placed class and ethnic conflict firmly in the hacendado pater familias' "private sphere." How this domination functioned is unclear and the evidence he provides is often misleading (see his discussion of censuses, pp. 41-42). While Guerrero finds that the new order and even the archival record silenced indigenous actors, other co-authors provide skillful studies of plebian interactions with the state. The essays by Martha Belchis and Ramona Falcón explore how indigenous actors adopted sophisticated "symbolic" strategies of their own. Belchis carefully demonstrates how illiterate and unassimilated tribal leaders made their voices heard in the documents. The actors emerge as deft manipulators of Argentine factionalism and rhetoric, adopting diverse strategies to confront the rising nation state. Falcón seeks to chart a middle road between a romantic image of peasant liberalism (a "leyenda rosa" [p. 141]) and the traditional pessimistic views of villagers as the "cannon fodder" of elite conflicts. She uses petitions during Mexico's Second Empire to demonstrate their considerable savvy in negotiating their survival. Unlike the rhetorical repertoire of republican citizenship, the Empire allowed villagers "to claim moral authority merely by the virtue of being Indians" (p. 141).

Guy Thomson's commentary on memory demonstrates how local legends evolved in the Sierra de Puebla (Mexico). Thomson explores how national identity is seen through the lens of municipal politics and concludes that for peasant actors national history takes on meaning when local rivalries are at stake. Rounding out the essays on citizenship and history, Raymond Buve describes how local loyalties and historical rhetoric helped determine political affiliations in Tlaxcala. Independence posed challenges to traditional indigenous actors who claimed privileges as the descendents of the allies of Cortés, coinciding with the arrival of new social actors enfranchised under Cadiz who sought to subvert the authority of the provincial capital. Hans Joachim König re-evaluates the "military coup" of 1854 in Colombia, providing a fascinating view of subaltern urban politics. Well-organized artisans participated in some surprising political alliances to defend their interests and claim rights as citizens. Marianne Wiesebron describes how partisan politics and clientelism trumped suffrage reform in Imperial Pernambuco.

Outstanding regional studies by Cynthia Radding, Antonio Escobar and Brian Hamnett explore the impact of liberal initiatives on rural societies and illustrate the Indians' sophisticated strategies of accommodation and resistance. Radding considers the impact of liberal land policy on indigenous communities by comparing mission frontiers in Mexico and Bolivia. Escobar provides an expertly crafted condensed history of the Mexican Huasteca, describing the dilemmas faced by indigenous pueblos under the republic that abolished colonial institutions of community. Hamnett adds to Escobar's observations with his review of how Oaxacan towns coped with the challenges of liberalism. Elizabeth Dore's chapter, after analyzing labor systems during the "coffee revolution," concludes that Nicaragua did not modernize; rather it created a peasantry tied to the land.

This collection deserves serious attention because it provides a clear-eyed review of the constraints under which subalterns struggled while demonstrating their innovative...